BOOK I.

Therefore it belches its foaming soul into the rotting grass.

Thus it also lies grimly,

And impresses furrows into the earth.

The number of casualties increases. The same sacred impulse,

Wandering through every grove,

Brings down six hundred monsters.

The terror of the fields is carried on wagons into the city.

Now it is the delight, and fills the eyes

Of the admiring people.

The weight slows the journey: the backs hang, immense to behold:

And the bullocks tremble at the load

Which they drag.

Part is preserved in salt: the tougher part yields to the spit.

The drunken kitchen

Vomits a bloody smell.

The great HEAD goes around the tables, and through the banquets

It is carried, so that it might provoke

A hidden gluttony in the stomach.

In Roman and early modern feasts, the boar's head was the centerpiece, often used to stimulate the appetite of guests who were already full. The insolent mercy of winter Bacchus is added,

Not without a cruelty

Moving a pleasant thirst.

Bacchus is the god of wine. The "cruelty" of winter or the salty meat creates a thirst that the wine "mercifully" quenches.

A N T I T H E S I S.

From where do the moved mountains sound with a festive song?

Why do the struck stars cry out?

Of course Mount Maenalus, shaken by the happy

Conqueror of wild beasts, applauds!

Maenalus is a mountain in Greece sacred to the god Pan and a favorite hunting ground of Diana. The Boars are displayed, and the spears drenched in gore,

The slaughter is to be seen in order.

I had believed a Getic tyrant, with his head removed,

Was being led after the Thracians were subdued.

The Getae and Thracians were ancient tribes from the Danube region, often used in poetry to represent fierce, barbaric enemies. Balde is comparing the hunters' pride to a Roman general celebrating a victory over a powerful king. Such triumphs are celebrated over the captured *Petaso*

Amidst the cups of unfermented wine!

original: "Petaſone." Petaso usually refers to a broad-brimmed traveler's hat, but here it is likely a mock-heroic name for the boar or a reference to a leg of pork. Yet let there be glory in the slaughter (for why do we strive further)

Of a huge pig:

The greatest share is surely owed to the scent-hounds,

To Oribasus or Laelaps.

These are traditional names for hunting dogs in classical literature. Oribasus means "Mountain-climber." In whose gaping mouths armored

Nature has placed threatening saws of teeth.